Best Way to Buy an Apple iPhone 6s – Medical Data Breach

What’s the Best Way to Buy an Apple iPhone 6s?

Just a year ago, picking up a new iPhone was as simple as handing over $200 and agreeing to a two-year plan. But as carriers are
pushing customers to pay for new phones themselves through financing plans rather than offering discounts upfront, the decision on how to buy one has gotten exponentially more complicated.

To make it easier, we examined the myriad lease and installment payment plans offered by the nation’s four largest carriers, as
well as the terms of Apple’s new financing deal, to figure outwhat’s the best, and in some case, cheapest, way to get your hands
on a new iPhone.

Bottom line: The two carriers duking it out for customers, Sprint and T-Mobile, offer lease deals that are the cheapest way to go but
not by much after factoring in the cost to keep the phone and the cost of service over a 24-month period. And if you actually want to
connect your calls reliably in more regions, you’ll have to pay more through AT&T and Verizon, the nation’s top two carriers.

Data breach exposes 10M health records from New York insurer

Hack of Excellus is the latest in a string of attacks that, experts say, show records are more valuable than credit card numbers on the
black market.

More than 10 million records were exposed in a data breach of health insurer Excellus BlueCross BlueShield and a partner
company. That’s only a fraction of the size of a similar hack earlier this year, but it raises the question, “Again?”

The hack of Rochester, New York-based Excellus follows not just the breach of about 80 million health records from Anthem in January,
but several smaller attacks against health care databases in California and New York. In July, the UCLA Health System announced
hackers had accessed 4.5 million of its patient records. In June, an employee of a hospital called Montefiore Medical Center in New
York was indicted for helping to steal 12,000 health care records.

Verizon planning more generous trade-in offer for old iPhones

Customers will be able to apply the trade-ins, of up to $400, immediately toward the purchase of new Apple (AAPL) iPhones to
reduce either the full cost or monthly installment plan payments. But Verizon is still requiring that customers buy a new
phone, rather than offering some of the lower-cost leasing deals its rivals are pitching.